Does making resolutions make you two-faced? Maybe, but that's OK.

Remember when being "two-faced" was a bad thing? I don't know if the kids these days still use that epithet, but back in my day it was a terminal pronouncement on one's character to call them two-faced. It generally referred to someone who was insincere, talked behind your back, or said one thing with intentions of doing the opposite.

It's been a long time since I've used or even thought about the term two-faced, opting now in my adulthood for words like integrity, authenticity and transparency.

However, it came to mind recently when my kids were reading aloud from a book given to them by their grandmother called The Handy Answer Book for Kids (and Parents). Not only are there handy answers to questions like why humans have hair, why scabs form, and why girls don't have, er, all the same parts boys have, but there is a nice entry on the origin of the names for the months of the year. I'm sure I've heard it before, but I was struck with fresh insight about the meaning of January.

"In Roman mythology, Janus (or Ianus) was the god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings and endings. His most prominent remnant in modern culture is his namesake, the month of January, which begins the new year. He is most often depicted as having two faces or heads, facing in opposite directions."[From Wikipedia]

In other words, Janus was the two-faced god who was able to look forwards and backwards at the same time. I suppose it makes sense, then, that many of us find ourselves feeling reflective as we bid farewell to one year, while looking forward with anticipation and certain expectations for the year ahead. It is a good and natural thing to greet January in a two-faced manner.

Looking back we can review lessons learned, savor the successes and say good-bye to that which no longer serves. Looking forward, we see our goals and dreams on the horizon and can begin plotting our course towards them. Spend too much time looking at what's past, and you'll find yourself backing into the future without vision or direction. Looking only forward, I think we risk leaving behind some valuable tools and intelligence that we fought hard to win.

So, we make resolutions. We resolve, looking back and recalling disappointments and failures, that we want some kind of change in our lives. We resolve, looking forward to the achievement of particular goals, to put an action plan in place to make them happen. So maybe being two-faced is good. It's this crazy little thing called "balance".

What do you think? Do you make resolutions? Can you effectively look forwards and backwards at once?

Are you actually working this week?

Are you at work this week? Yeah, me too.



It's pretty quiet around here, as I expect it is around most offices.

Business is slow, schedules are out of whack - so what do you do this week? Well, you probably fall into one of these camps:

The Drone


This week is just like any other week. You show up, you take care of business, you go home. Enough said. The routine may only be altered by the appearance of extra cookies, cake and candy in the break room.

The Driven

Holiday? What holiday? Everyday is a good day to get out there and hustle. You are passionate. You are hungry. You are building a business, a brand, an empire! So what if you have to do it in a Santa hat?



The Vacationer


The week between Christmas and New Year's Day is a natural time to take vacation. You can squeeze a little extra mileage out of your annual leave allotment by attaching it to paid holidays, and you probably won't be missing much anyway. Factor in kids out of school and/or the necessity of traveling to visit your in-laws in New Jersey, you may as well check out now.



The Staycationer



The word "staycation" has been popularized in these days of fashionable frugality. In the interest of saving money, one might opt to spend their vacation week chilling out at home. What I'm talking about here, however, are the office staycationers. You know the ones. They show up for work when most everyone else is out of the office - coming in late, cutting out early - knowing full well that productivity is at an annual low. With half the staff on vacation and clients on holiday, not much can or will get done. But they show their face in the office, fire off a few emails and get credit for working without actually doing much that looks like work. You will see lots of extra Facebook updates and checkbook balancing from these folks. If you are reading this, you probably fall into this camp. Hey, I'm just sayin'.



The Housekeeper



The housekeeper is truly grateful for some time in the office uninteruppted by meetings, phone calls and office drop-bys. It is the perfect time to catch up on some of those important administrative tasks that always seem to get usurped by more urgent matters. I, myself, enter the week expecting to clean out my inbox, file those expense reports and stockpile some blog posts like a squirrel gathers nuts for winter. (I already see the specter of unmet expectations looming on the horizon. )

However you choose to spend this final week of 2009, may you be refreshed and recharged for a fabulously productive 2010!

Time to Celebrate

Have you had your office holiday celebration yet? We just had ours at the Vmeals worldwide HQ in Charlottesville, VA. What a great time! It’s not too often that we get the whole team together.

We house the business office and customer service center here in Charlottesville, but we have some pretty great folks in the field helping spread the good news about Vmeals to hungry people across the country.

Here are a few of them. From left to right: Shayna Buffum from Atlanta, our business manager Dawn Lotts, Eric Bonardi from Baltimore, Mike Lutey from houston, Mary Pat Koslowski from Charlottesville, and Renee Carlson from Charlotte.

Vmeals Answers Your Most Vexing Holiday Questions. (Well, one at least.)

It’s the holiday season,
(echo)the holiday season.

Do you have the Muzak version of this in your head yet?

In business, the holidays can be a minefield. Depending on where you work and with whom you work, there are all sorts of conundrums:

· How do we observe the holidays?

· Who is taking time off and when?

· How do we wring the last drop of productivity out of a team distracted by shopping, baking and a gathering storm of houseguests preparing to blow in?

· What do we say to one another – Merry Christmas? Happy Holidays? Happy Ramahanukwanzaa?

· Do we exchange gifts, hand out turkeys or bonuses?

· Do we send cards to our clients and customers?

· What does “festive business attire” really mean?

· Do we invite co-workers to our Christmas Open House or New Years Eve party? Can we get away with inviting some but not others?

· Do we have a holiday party? Potluck in the office or boozy extravaganza in a swanky night spot? (I vote for the latter as it always supplies good office gossip and stories for years to come.)


Well, we can’t answer most of these questions for you, but there is one thing we know for sure: you’re going to need to eat. Whether you need to feed people to get them to finish up that project by year’s end, or you’re celebrating in high style with shrimp towers and whiskey sour fountains, we can help.

How does your office observe the holidays?